Barbara Sprunt
Barbara Sprunt is a producer on NPR's Washington desk, where she reports and produces breaking news and feature political content. She formerly produced the NPR Politics Podcast and got her start in radio at as an intern on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered and Tell Me More with Michel Martin. She is an alumnus of the Paul Miller Reporting Fellowship at the National Press Foundation. She is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania native.
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Congress returns from a two-week recess with a massive item on its to-do list: budget reconciliation. Lawmakers barely passed the plan's framework along party lines and now face an uphill battle on reaching consensus. -
House Republicans narrowly adopted a multitrillion-dollar budget framework on Thursday, paving the way for lawmakers to begin work on many of President Trump's top policy priorities. -
House GOP leaders delayed a critical vote after being unable to sway a sufficient number of holdouts within the party. The vote on a Senate amendment related to a budget plan would have brought the party one step closer to implementing much of President Trump's legislative agenda. -
Republicans in Congress are closer to passing key elements of President Trump's legislative agenda — like extending tax cuts that expire at the end of the year — but only if the House and Senate can get on the same page. -
Republicans hope to make progress this week on the president's domestic agenda. But there are signs of trouble between members in the House and Senate — right before they leave for a two-week recess.
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Congress ground to a halt due to uprisings in both chambers. Sen. Cory Booker gave a record-breaking speech, and a fight in the House over remote voting for new parents brought work to a standstill.
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GOP leaders tried to block a bipartisan measure to allow proxy voting, but nine Republicans joined with Democrats to overcome it. -
Lawmakers from both parties teamed up to force a House vote on a measure allowing new parents to vote by proxy for 12 weeks, but House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes it on Constitutional grounds. -
Democrats need to flip three seats to take back the House next year — and the path to a majority likely runs through districts President Trump carried. Democrats who won alongside Trump offer their prescription for a party they say needs to make big changes. -
In Wyoming and Colorado, people expressed anger and exasperation at members of Congress who held town halls.
